Thursday, May 30, 2013

This salad was loosely based on a recipe from the sweet life, except we didn't have time to make cheese so we used soy feta, and since we were doubling up on soy products we made eggplant bacon from Appetite for Reduction instead of fakin' bacon. We used herb dijon gardein chicken breasts but omitted the sauce packets. We also substituted a vegan bleu cheese dressing from earthen feast, minus the crumbled tofu.

Allie: I know this recipe sounds like it has a ton of elements but it actually was no big deal to make and I really enjoyed making fake hard-boiled eggs. I added a little black salt for that "eggy" flavor but let's not kid ourselves, those eggs were not very eggy although they looked quite convincing. The real star of this dish was the bleu cheese dressing, I could have eaten it by the spoonful! I loved arranging all the elements into a stunning dish and once it was all mixed up the flavors were WOW. The eggplant bacon was great as always (also good in BLTs) and the feta and chicken were good too. I made the bacon, eggs and dressing before Brian got home which was a good choice because finally I got to eat a little bit of bacon before he snacked it all. This was a decadent and filling meal. I rate it 5 out of 5 slices and I would totally make it again with infinite variations. Thanks internet!

The stripes come from the official flag of the Cobb Islands

Brian: I had never had a cobb salad, vegan or otherwise, prior to this one, but if this was any indication of their general quality I have been really missing out! I was lucky enough to have Allie make all the ingredients of this salad prior to me getting home, only leaving me to oversee the final assembly (also done by Allie.) I can't remember if food is supposed to taste better if you have made it yourself or if you didn't have to make it at all, but judging from our mutual reaction to it both probably work (we both loved it.) The eggplant bacon we used in this is probably one of my favorite things we have picked up in our months of cooking. It doesn't quite hit pure bacon, but liquid smoke and soy sauce make it something that adds a huge flavor pop to whatever you use it in. It also pairs incredibly well with anything with avocado in it, making a salty, smokey, decadent flavor bomb in every bite. I'm not sure what sort of witchcraft went in to the dressing, and I will throw Allie in a lake later to see if she floats, but it was incredibly creamy and delicious and made it really hard to believe it's good for you. While the hard boiled "eggs" didn't add a huge amount in flavor, getting lost in the dressing, they definitely pulled their weight in the aesthetics department and as the Dude would say "They really tied the salad together." This is a definite 5 out of 5 and I am looking forward to having the leftovers tomorrow, if they make it that long.

Allie: Whoa, this recipe was great! I can't believe it's not ribs! Ever since we got a container of Spanish smoked paprika from Penzey's spices, I've been looking for recipes that use this delicious product and these ones didn't disappoint. The seitan ribs were extremely meaty, with a very convincing carmelized BBQ sauce crust on the outside. The sauce was sweet and delicious, even though Guy Fieri is a ridiculous person and the packaging made me nauseous (Is "sticky" ever an appetizing adjective if it's not associated with Cinnabon?). The brussel sprout recipe has been a go-to grill staple for us, we even made them on Thanksgiving with great results. They got super crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The secret is microwaving the sprouts for a few minutes before trying to skewer and cook them. If you don't microwave them, they will be rock hard and you will end up with skewered hands and that's not vegan. Also they won't cook through. We didn't want anything complicated, and this was very simple and quick. I rate this meal 5 out of 5 slices, and I'd definitely make this at any barbecue.

Brian: The thing I miss the most about not eating meat (besides fish) has always been barbecue. Despite various products claims to be convincing vegetarian BBQ equivalents, I have always been unsatisfied (and I like riblets as much as the next guy, if that guy likes vegetarian BBQ equivalents.) This recipe, however, not only met my expectations, but greatly exceeded them. So delicious! When we first started making seitan we would always boil it, which would lead to a soggy product (duh) but at some point we discovered that baking seitan led to a much meatier texture. Baking this seitan and then grilling gave it a very genuine BBQ meat texture. While one would expect a Guy Fieri sauce to fall somewhere between mediocre and crushingly disappointing, it was actually deliciously sweet and spicy and worked perfectly on the ribs. Grilled brussel sprouts are fast becoming my favorite vegetable to do on the grill, second only to asparagus. As Allie said, you need to soften them up in the microwave first, but done properly they are crispy on the outside and tender in the middle (and tasty all the way through.) I have no qualms about giving this meal a solid 5 out of 5.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Allie: AB went to Bridgeport, CT the other day because we heard that the Beardsley Zoo had newborn Nigerian Dwarf goats and boy, did they ever! Those goats were bananas! How did I not know this zoo was 20 minutes from my house? They had two tigers! In Bridgeport, CT! Tigers! It was a surprisingly nice zoo, with peacocks milling about everywhere, gorgeous weather, a sweet greenhouse with weird plants, and a lot of different types of animals. The highlights included some prairie dogs, otters, cute farm animals, monkeys, etc. I got to feed the goats and they loved me. And two freaking tigers! I felt like we were able to get a lot closer to the animals than at other zoos, but that this was because the animals seemed a little more closely confined so that was kind of sad/cool. And holy cow what is the deal with children??? Why do they have to be ALWAYS SCREAMING AT MAX VOLUME?! This zoo would have been way better with no children. Some exhibits were closed for now, which was a bummer because one was a LEOPARD and another one was a MEXICAN WOLF and I would have liked to see those, but maybe we will go back. I had a really good time and I give the zoo 5 slices.

So as you can imagine, we were pretty hungry after seeing all that and we needed some real stick-to-your-ribs fare, so we headed to Shandals Vegetaratian Cafe. The restaurant is small and has a couple of tables, it was pretty bare bones and also somehow dark, even though it was noon on a sunny day. The owner was really friendly, I think we arrived right as he opened so he was still arranging the selections, which are arranged buffet-style. I ordered a small, which includes 4 choices, I chose rasta pasta, lo mein, BBQ tofu, and lima beans with wheat gluten. That was a lot of food, especially for $7! Everything was yummy, especially the lima beans which I would never have guessed would be my favorite. I was looking forward to the rasta pasta and it did not disappoint. I very nearly finished everything and I had to make Brian drive home because I went into a food coma. 5 out of 5 slices!

HEY IT'S A TIGER! A TIGER!

HEY IT'S A GOAT! A GOAT!

HEY IT'S SOME FOOD! SOME FOOD!

Brian: "Excuse me little child, what animal did you say that was? A ti...? A what? I'm sorry I couldn't hear you, could you speak up?" - Something no one has said ever at a zoo. But you know what? It's ok because tigers, bison, alligators, eagles and weird plants are all cool enough to make me not care that an entire elementary school is screaming directly in my ear. Obviously zoos are problematic for many many reasons, but I feel slightly better when most animals are there for rehabilitation reasons or to keep a species from becoming extinct. It was a beautiful day out and we needed a place to go and enjoy being outside, and like Allie said despite this place being about 15 minutes away from us we had never gone. I'd say it was completely worth the trip! When we were leaving we saw advertisements for a wine and beer event there, which sounds like something we would be in to. I'd have to say feeding the goats was the highlight of this trip, though they didn't jump up on the fence for me like they did for Allie. I will try to not hold it against them.

We went to Shandals for lunch, which was only the second time I had ever been there. I opted for the "small" plate this time, since last time I got the large which is actually massive (I'd estimate around twice as much as pictured above.) As before, this really hit the spot. You can really tell how chilled out the guy who runs this place is by eating his food. It's delicious, hearty food that makes you want to lay down and sleep for a while. I got the mashed potatoes, lima beans, soy chicken and peppers, and brown stew tofu which were all great. The guy who runs the place (I really wish I had learned his name) was as impressed as I was at my selections and, holding the plate at an arms length like he was inspecting a work of art, commented that he had prepared a great looking plate of food. I could not agree more, and it tasted just as good as it looked. 5 out of 5.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The scallops were adapted from a recipe from Olives for Dinner, but instead of using mushrooms we used mock scallops that Brian picked up on a whim at the health food store. I also used almond milk instead of coconut cream in the sauce, and did not add liquid smoke.

Allie: I made the appetizer while Brian was practicing with his band, and it was easy! I've never made scallops before and I've only eaten them a couple of times, but I watch a lot of Hell's Kitchen so I'm basically an expert. I was kind of skeptical about the weird frozen fake scallops that Brian got, and I also failed to properly thaw them before I started cooking them so I was sure they would be gross but they actually maintained a scallopy shape and texture and even crisped up nicely in the pan. Next time I would thaw them but it's good to know you can wing it. The smoked paprika sauce was amazing and so simple to make. I am leery of coconut cream because it's packed with saturated fat, but the almond milk worked well. The tempeh bacon was easy to use as always, and the wrapping process was easy and made the scallop the perfect little vessel for holding sauce. I give this recipe 5 out of 5 slices, it was fun and surprising.

Unfortunately I ran out of steam after eating a bunch of scallops and could only have one bite of pasta so I can't rate it. However, we are doing recipes from The Vegan Family Cookbook all week (after they won the pizza dough recipe bake-off last week) and I am looking forward to trying more stuff from that book.

Brian: I am grateful to Allie for transforming the vegan scallops I bought on a whim in to something so delicious, when I thought they would probably end up being just weird. The lesson? When unsure about how something will taste, find a recipe that wraps it in (tempeh) bacon. I can't say for sure that I would buy the scallops again since, on their own, they didn't knock my socks off, but when I was at the store I did see some vegan calamari they also sold. Look forward to a post about Allie making something delicious out of that.

The sauce on the pasta was delicious despite not being the hugest fan of sun dried tomatoes. It was super garlic-y and had a whole bunch of fresh basil in it so how could I not like it? However, I think it could have used more of a spice element, but we generally feel that way about everything. Side note: Allie and I appreciated the simplicity of the recipes in the vegan family cookbook, but this recipe called for "a bunch" of basil and "a bunch" or oregano. I am familiar with the concept of bunches of herbs, but maybe something a little more precise would be helpful. Rather than make fresh dough, we used some left over dough from making lasagna a while back which we had frozen. I don't think this really affected how it handled, but I kind of had a pain of a time trying to make the pasta. I had bought the pasta machine on a whim and opted for a cheaper one, so it might just not be up to the task, or I could have been rolling the dough too thin, but it was really hard to get individual strands of pasta from the machine. We also don't have a pasta rack so I was just laying them out on a plate, which led to some clumping, so the final product was some really fine strands of pasta and some really wide noodles. I look forward to attempting pasta again when we are better equipped and have made fresh dough. Overall I give the scallops 5/5 and the pasta a 3.5/5.

Allie: AB took this show out on the town this weekend to celebrate my graduation from law school (woo!). We decided to go to Bentara, a Malaysian restaurant in downtown New Haven. We've been there a few times and it never disappoints. It's a little pricey, so it is better for special occasions. But it's worth it (especially if you have Brian to pay for you--thanks boo!). I got a fancy cocktail that had pineapple juice in it so that was good. We got the spring rolls for an appetizer but we didn't take a photo because we wolfed them down in a millisecond. They were awesome! I got kuew teow goreng, which was broad rice noodles with veggies and tofu in an extra-spicy sauce. It was amazing and the flavors were outrageous. I also appreciated that they were very accommodating when I asked for my dish without egg. The service was pretty good, at first the staff were very attentive and friendly, but after we got our entrees all of our servers seemed to fade into the woodwork and I practically had to hunt them down to get Brian a second beer, to get the check, and then again to get them to run the credit card. No big deal though. 5 out of 5 slices!

Fancy drinks, no cherry jokes

Could we make a pizza with this?

Brian: As Allie said, we went to Bentara to celebrate her graduating from law school (congrats!!) This place is pretty much the perfect place for us when we want to go some place fancy (graduations, birthdays, cashing in change at the coinstar, etc.) The great thing about asian cuisines is that there is always plenty of stuff that either is vegan, or can easily be made vegan and there is stuff that caters to my liking seafood. After totally annihilating the spring rolls we got, I got the BBQ salmon with roasted tomatoes and baby bok choy I had ordered, and man was it good. I've never had anything less than stellar from Bentara, but this was especially delicious. The salmon was cooked perfectly despite not really knowing what to tell the waiter when he asked how I wanted it cooked. I guess the correct answer is "medium" since that is what the waiter eventually assumed I wanted. We overheard the waiter telling another table that Bentara is the only authentic malaysian restaurant in THE WHOLE COUNTRY since they use whole spices that are fresh ground/cracked/whatever for each dish, rather than using pre-ground spices that every other place uses. I cannot independently verify this claim, but it certainly went a long way in making me feel like a fancy person. I totally crushed the salmon and then proceeded to help myself to a bunch of Allie's dish (and then finished it when we got home) which was also really good and spicy. Clearly this is a 5/5 experience, and I would recommend it to anyone in town who wanted a slightly fancy delicious meal out.

Allie: Thanksgiving in May, on pizza. OMFG. 5/5. Brian sucks. Tofurky 4 eva.
[Translation: I love Thanksgiving, this pizza was a perfect combination of all my favorite parts of it. Brian doesn't actually suck, but like most things he would be better if smothered in gravy. Tofurky gets really crispy and amazing on top of pizza. This meal had me "stuffing" my face all night.]

Brian: While I may suck, this pizza certainly did not. It's all the good things about thanksgiving, including the post meal drowsiness, but on a pizza and without annoying family so it's about a million times better. We finally nailed the crust, using the recipe from the first two pizzas but instead of rolling it out (which is a habit we picked up from using inferior doughs) we just spread it by hand which made it really light and not at all cracker-ish. This pizza required pretty intense preparations, but luckily Allie was kind enough to make an entire cornbread to use in the stuffing, make the gravy and then assemble the stuffing before I got home. All these combined as toppings resulted in a pizza that needed two hands to bring to the grill on the peel. This also meant that I could only down 3 slices, which I think is actually the same amount of food most people normally have at thanksgiving. I will agree with Allie that this was a 5/5 slice pizza, but definitely one to break out only on special occasions.

Brian: After semi diminishing scores following the benny pizza back on Monday, I was starting to worry that, like the fog in the movie The Mist, some sort of inescapable pizza fatigue was setting in. Luckily, this winner of a pie came along to slap me in the face and say "No! There is no such thing as too much pizza! Don't be such an idiot!" This was definitely a 5 out of 5 pizza. Allie was once again kind enough to get everything together before I got home from work, but remembered that she had read/heard that adding a layer of hummus before the toppings works for this kind of pizza. I stopped at our local grocery store and picked up some spicy hummus and was so glad Allie asked me to when I started eating. It put this pizza firmly in the 5/5 arena, adding a spicy and creamy base that, along with the tahini sauce, kept the pizza from being too dry with the crust and the falafel. Speaking of crust, we went back to the recipe we used fo the first two pizzas and split the difference in the amount of oil, and we think we have finally nailed the best recipe yet. It cooked perfectly with a soft chewy crust and a firm bottom to support all the toppings. While I once again couldn't finish the remaining slices, I don't feel at all bad, since the crust, falafel, tomatoes, onions, spinach and hummus made this a pizza of great magnitude. Would eat again in a heartbeat!

Allie: Falafel pizza? Yes and very yes. Every part of this pizza was amazing. The falafel was really quick and easy to make and was super light. I liked how it was baked and not fried. The tahini dressing was more savory and delicious than your average tahini, the addition of ginger and nutritional yeast made it very zesty. I would put that dressing on anything. Brian said he wanted to bathe in it, and anything that gets him to want to bathe is amazing in my book. As Brian mentioned, the crust was perfect, which was good because if it was too dry again I was about to get really bummed. I give this pizza a perfect 5 out of 5 slice rating. If you eat it you will probably want to burn all your pitas because this is so much better, but that's wasteful. Instead, feed pitas to geese.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

This pizza was made with a thai peanut sauce adapted from an online recipe (we substituted soy sauce for fish sauce and only used 1 can of coconut milk). We layered the sauce with cauliflower, red pepper, and chickpeas. The dough was from Grills Gone Vegan.

Chickpeas! You cauli that a pizza?

Allie: I appreciate that this pizza took no time at all to whip up, because I had a rough day and then we went to a happy hour that ran long and I was beat. I also appreciate that Brian did all the dishes! The sauce was very creamy, sweet, and spicy (we used extra hot chili powder that we got at the Indian market). I would not recommend this sauce if it was a bowl of curry and not a pizza, because that would be a bit much. I only had 1 piece and it was enough. The crust was kind of cracker-ish, even though we let it rise for almost 3 hours, which is annoying. But it was easy to work with. The veggies were great. It didn't knock my socks off, but it was a perfectly tasty pizza. I was too tired to see if Brian left any slices behind, but we did get some help from his roommate Tim, who said it was great. I was going to give this a 4 out of 5, but upon reflection I'm bumping it down to 3.5 slices because it wasn't anything special, and I've come to have higher expectations from our meals than yumminess alone.Brian: Out of the pizzas we have made so far, this one left me the most unimpressed. This is not meant to say it was bad, because it was definitely delicious, it just lacked a certain quality to push it over the top. As Allie mentioned the crust was the thinnest of the ones we have made so far, despite being left to rise the most, which led to a kind of bland cracker vibe. This, combined with the fact that the we forgot we were halving the amount of sauce we would make and put in the normal amount of peanut butter but half the amount of coconut milk, made the pizza have a sort of cracker and peanut butter effect that just wasn't working to put me in true Pizza Wolf mode. The cauliflower, peppers and chickpeas were the best toppings we could have picked, but if we had lessened the peanut butter and upped the spice of the sauce, I think it all would have worked together better. I'm going to join Allie in her 3.5/5 overall assessment. Considering my less than totally blown away first impression, which happened with the previous two pizzas, and the fact that there were two unclaimed slices left over that I had no desire to go back to later on in the evening I don't think I could justify a higher score. THAT BEING SAID: This was still pizza, and pizza is awesome. 4 ever.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

For this pizza, we marinated tempeh cubes in a chili sauce left over from a dinner at our favorite Chinese food place in New Haven. We layered that and broccoli with a simple General Tso sauce recipe we found online, and added sliced scallions at the end. The dough was adapted from The Vegan Family Cookbook.

Also ready in about 15 minutes

Allie: This pizza looked and smelled amazing and it completely rocked my taste buds from the first bite. After 2 pieces I was happy not to eat any more. We doubled the sauce recipe because it seemed skimpy but the flavor was so intense that it might have been a mistake. Even Brian couldn't finish it, leaving his "no slice left behind policy" in shambles and truly disappointing us all. On the plus side, it tasted just like General Tso's, sweet and spicy, and the roasted broccoli was perfect. I liked the marinated tempeh but it was overwhelmed by the sauce. The scallions really tied the pizza together.

We're still getting the hang of making pizza dough from scratch, as we had previously bought prepared dough from the supermarket. We loved the taste of this dough recipe from the Eggs Benny Pizza we made, but it was too sticky. We tried to remedy this by reducing the amount of oil from 1/4 cup to 1/8 cup, which made the consistency perfect for rolling it out and sliding it onto and off of the pizza peel. However, we may have kneaded it too much or not let it rise enough, because in the end it was not chewy and bubbly. It had a cracker-ish texture that was not very appealing to me. I am rating this pizza 4 out of 5 slices because despite its issues (which could likely be easily fixed), it was still a unique pizza with killer flavors. Brian: My first thought on taking a bite of this pizza was "Another 5 slice masterpiece! Oh god, am I going to give everything 5 slices? I probably am, aren't I?" It was a flavor explosion, the spices, the sweetness, the tempeh and the snap of the broccoli was perfect. About 2 slices deep, however, both Allie and I started to have second thoughts. Sometimes explosions can be good, but it is rarely good when things just KEEP EXPLODING (even fireworks need to end sometime.) Talk about being tiring on the taste buds! Granted that didn't stop me from wolfing down 4 slices when I really should have stopped at 3, but I am a creature of habit. As Allie pointed out there is a not so secret shame wrapped in tin foil in the fridge, so I couldn't totally seal the deal. I just couldn't do it. I could see this pizza being great split multiple ways as some sort of appetizer, but for two it was just a little much. One other good note, and this partially applies to the benny pizza as well, is that it was nice to somehow eat pizza and chinese food and not have to drink 6 gallons of water just to not wake up feeling like I was drinking whiskey all night. Overall, I would give it 4.25 out of 5 slices.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

This pizza was inspired by a special at the new fancy pizza place down the street from us. The dough was from The Vegan Family Cookbook. The hollandaise sauce and "eggs" were adapted from Vegan Brunch and the "chorizo" was leftover from a yummy batch we made last week from Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food. We made it by layering Hollandaise, tofu scramble, fresh tomatoes and chorizo slices, MORE hollandaise, and Smart Bacon.

The finished masterpiece

Brian: Let me preface this first review by saying I love pizza. I mean, I REALLY love pizza. It is alway the food I want, and my stomach seems to have the strange ability to never be filled by it. I mention this to illustrate that, like Ebert (R.I.P.) in his later years, it's going to be very hard for anything to get less than at least a 4 slices out of 5 (we're doing slices right, Allie?) As long as it is on crust and has technically spent time in an oven, it's ok in my book. Bias aside, I can solidly give this pizza 5 slices out of 5. Considering our winter hiatus from using the pizza stone on the grill, we really knocked this one out of the park. I can assure you that Allie made this pizza in to a perfect circle prior to going on the grill, but due to a band practice gone long the liquids from the hollandaise and tomatoes made the dough stickier than it otherwise would have been. This meant that getting it off the peel and on to the stone was more difficult than in the past. On that topic, the importance of corn meal-ing the crap out of everything the pizza is going to touch cannot be understated, as it was the only thing that made the transfer close to possible. Despite the high sauce level and amount of toppings, the crust cooked perfectly and evenly and allowed for a good slice hold and support. The slight spice of the homemade chorizo really set the whole thing off and the entire experience felt like the most decadent thing you could imagine eating (pizza?! and brunch?! and hollandaise sauce?! Oh my!) This decadence made it the first time in a long time there was a slice left I just couldn't bring myself to eat. Somehow, I managed to find the strength about an hour later and munched it down, leaving my "no slice left behind" policy unblemished. I can safely say this pizza will be in rotation for a long time to come.

Allie: Brunch is my favorite meal, I love eggs benedict, and I love pizza, so it's no surprise that this pizza gets a 5 out of 5-slice rating from me. I love brunch so much that my cat is named Brunch, and he is a constant disappointment to me in comparison to brunch the meal. Pizza is great but I don't love it as much as Brian does, because I can't eat cheese and that's an integral part of most pizza. I don't think either of us missed having cheese on this one though.

We'd never made this dough before and it was one of the best tasting recipes I've tried, although it was a little sticky even before the moisture of the toppings got to it. I might add a bit more flour next time. Also, if I'd seeded the tomatoes and drained the tofu more it could have helped. But in the end it was bubbly, chewy, and nice and crisp on the bottom. It was thick enough to support the extra-heavy toppings but not doughy like thick pizzas can get. The hollandaise was the star of this pizza, it was creamy and rich and went great with the fresh tomato and chorizo. The tofu scramble was sort of overwhelmed by the other toppings but every once in awhile I sort of felt like it was eggy in a nice way. I don't think I got much Smart Bacon on my slices because Brian was totally picking all the pieces off and snacking on them. [Ed. Note: WAS NOT] It was incredibly filling, I was stuffed after 2 smallish slices. And it's definitely the first time we had any pizza left over (not for long!).

Pizza is the best food in the whole world! Sadly, there are not that many exciting options for vegetarians at most Italian restaurants, and even fewer for vegans. We created the following menu of pizza recipes that are all 100% vegan. We are going to make them on the pizza stone in the new grill, both for added crispiness and because the landlord just installed a new (vintage?) oven that is effectively just a really grimy cabinet that beeps a lot.

Who we are!

Allie and Brian are BFF from New Haven, CT who love adventures, delicious food, spontaneous road trips, and making stuff from scratch. Allie is a vegan painter and law-talking person. Brian is a pescetarian rock god and sound recording duder. Adventurebuddiez is the true story of our quest for fun and delicious surprises--to the extreme!